Training in Extracellular Vesicles: For Benefit in Health and Disease

TRAIN-EV (Training in extracellular vesicles) brings together a group of leading European scientists working on extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes and microvesicles (also called ectosomes).

Exosomes and microvesicles/ectosomes, collectively termed extracellular vesicles (EV), have attracted much recent interest because of their potential functions, use as disease biomarkers and possible therapeutic exploitation. Due to their enormous relevance, this relatively new field of research is quickly expanding. While Europe leads the field of EV research, there are still many gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed to ensure optimal exploitation of EVs from health and Europe’s economic benefit.

Addressing this, our Network will coordinate fifteen highly inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral projects to synergise the existing EV research activities and to develop a novel research training programme. TRAIN-EV’s main objective is to provide excellent and integrated multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral training of a critical mass of ESRs of outstanding potential in the academic, clinical, and industry/business components of exploiting EV, while performing novel cutting-edge research to address these gaps and generate new knowledge.

TRAIN-EV is coordinated by Prof Lorraine O’Driscoll from Trinity College Dublin and involves fourteen academic and industrial partners from Ireland, France, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia, Portugal and Italy. It is funded by the EU with over €3.9 million grant under the Horizon2020 Marie Sklodowska Curie Innovative Training Network (MSCA-ITN) programme.